Balto. Co. pair charged in robberies in Arundel

Description of car leads police to suspects in food mart holdups

March 01, 2001|By Johnathon E. Briggs | Johnathon E. Briggs,SUN STAFF

The description of a getaway car after the armed robbery of a Linthicum gas station-food mart early yesterday resulted in the arrest of a Baltimore County couple linked to a convenience store holdup two days earlier in Ferndale, county police reported.

Paul Anthony Walsh, 33, and Tammy Marie Garlic, 21, of the 100 block of Twin Circle Way in Halethorpe, were arrested about 5 a.m. in Baltimore after Anne Arundel police broadcast a lookout for the car and couple fleeing a robbery at a Shell station in the 700 block of Nursery Road.

According to police, a young woman with "frizzy" blond hair entered the Shell station's food mart shortly before 3 a.m. and announced the robbery to the clerk as a man waited outside in a car. The clerk, who was not identified, told police the woman was armed with a black handgun and demanded the cash from the register.

The pair fled toward the Beltway in what was described as an old silver or gray Mercury Sable or similar-looking vehicle with body damage and a broken taillight, police said.

Both car and couple matched the description from a robbery late Monday of a Royal Farm Store in the 7000 block of Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd., about four miles south of the Shell station.

In that robbery, which occurred shortly before midnight, a man appeared to use a pay phone outside the store and then entered to make a purchase, police said. He returned about 10 minutes later, approached the register and displayed a note that ordered the clerk to place money from the register into a Royal Farm bag.

Police said no weapon was displayed.

The man left with an undisclosed amount of cash and fled in a car driven by a woman described as in her early 20s with blond, frizzy hair, police said.

The man was described as white, in his early 20s, about 5 feet 9 inches tall and 160 pounds, with a mustache and goatee and missing teeth, police said.

County police said Officer William Selander, who was investigating the Ferndale robbery, had put together a photo "lineup" that included a picture of Garlic and brought it to the Shell station after hearing a broadcast of the descriptions. The clerk identified the suspect from the photos, police said.

A short time later, Baltimore police officers stopped the car on East Fort Avenue and arrested Walsh and Garlic.

Each was charged with multiple counts of robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and theft. Garlic was also charged with using a handgun in commission of a crime.